Living in Tombs

“When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs…Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones… ‘My name is Legion,’ he replied, ‘for we are many.’ The demons begged Jesus, ‘Send us among the pigs; allow us to go’…and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs … about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” Mark 5:1-13.

My Bible Study states that ‘according to scholars it wasn’t unusual for tombs around Israel to be inhabited by the poor or the insane. Graveyards were sometimes the only places where outcasts could find shelter.’ Most tombs were dug right into the hillside and were made up of two chambers, an outer chamber with a small stone seat and an inner chamber where the dead were laid to rest. It is believed that outcasts would seek refuge in the outer chamber to be protected from the elements.

I find it interesting that my commentary states that Legion, the name that the demons gave themselves, was the largest unit of the Roman army; it consisted of up to six thousand soldiers. Are you aware that the average human brain has up to 70,000 thoughts per day? With this fact in mind, it is no wonder that we entomb ourselves through our own legions of thought. They both bind and paralyze us, entreating us to live among the tombs. They invite us to come in from the overwhelming circumstances of life, and sit on a small stone of faith right outside the inner chamber of death. We hole ourselves up in the dark and dreary tombs of our minds. If not surrendered to the One who can cast them out, these legions of self-defeating thoughts will keep us living less than the abundant life for which Christ has called us. It is only through the renewal of our minds in Christ that allows us to stand up from our small faith and walk out into the transforming power of Christ. He will demolish our self-defeating thoughts and send them away.

Are you dwelling in graves this morning? Are your thoughts enslaving or transforming? Are you willing to come out of the tomb and enter into the Light? We were created for paradise, not for caves.

'But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.’ 1 Peter 2:9.

May we declare His praises in legions!